Need to raise income threshold for social housing buyers

The Ministry of Construction has recently proposed raising the income threshold for social housing buyers. This is necessary to open the door to housing for low- and middle-income earners, while also creating a push to encourage businesses to invest in the low-cost housing segment.

Customers learn about a real estate project in Bien Hoa ward, Dong Nai province. Illustrative photo

This proposal is also expected to contribute to overcoming the shortcomings that have lasted for many years in social housing development policies.

Income criteria barriers and verification procedures

Developing social housing is one of the major policies of the Party and the State, demonstrating the spirit of humanity and progress, ensuring that “no one is left behind”. This is the concretization of the viewpoint of putting people at the center of all development policies, considering housing as a premise for finding a career.

Dong Nai is a major industrial center of the country, the housing demand of workers and migrant workers is very high. In recent times, the Provincial Party Committee, Provincial People's Council, Provincial People's Committee have issued many resolutions and plans to develop social housing to meet the housing needs of the people, contributing to the socio -economic development of the province, but the implementation of projects still faces many obstacles.

One of those barriers is the regulation on income levels for purchasing social housing. Before August 1, 2024, the income level for single people was no more than VND 11 million/month, and for married people, the total income of a couple was no more than VND 22 million/month. From August 1, 2024, this income level will be adjusted for single people to no more than VND 15 million/month and for couples to no more than VND 30 million/month. According to many people, this income threshold is still low compared to large cities, where many industrial parks have expensive living costs.

Chairwoman of Kim Oanh Group (headquartered in Dong Nai) Dang Thi Kim Oanh expressed: There are many workers who are excluded from the list of social housing buyers just because they have to pay a few hundred thousand dong in personal income tax in the year. This is very regrettable, because those people are still in a difficult situation in terms of housing, but due to the strict regulations, they cannot access social housing. The fact that people who really need a house but cannot buy it also means that businesses cannot sell their products.

Another problem is the income verification process. According to current regulations, the People's Committee at the commune level is responsible for verifying for people without labor contracts (including freelance workers and citizens). However, in reality, many localities say they do not have a database for verification. This makes it very difficult for the labor force without contracts in urban areas to complete their application for social housing.

Deputy Director of the Department of Construction Do Thanh Phuong expressed: There are many problems related to investment and trading of social housing, including the two problems mentioned above. Therefore, Dong Nai has proposed that the Ministry of Construction study and adjust policies, including raising the income threshold and allowing workers to self-declare and be responsible for their income.

In 2025, Dong Nai province was assigned by the Prime Minister to complete more than 4,200 social housing units and the whole period of 2021-2030, the province was assigned to complete 66,700 units. To date, the province has approved the investment policy of 37 projects, with a scale of more than 37,000 units.

Raise income threshold, lower interest rates

Faced with the above shortcomings, the Ministry of Construction has completed and organized a consultation on the draft decree replacing Decree No. 100/2024/ND-CP dated July 26, 2024 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Housing Law on the development and management of social housing. A notable highlight of this draft is raising the income level to be eligible to buy social housing.

Specifically, for single people, the income level is not more than 20 million VND/month, single people raising children under the age of majority have an income of not more than 30 million VND/month, married people have a total income of the couple not more than 40 million VND/month. Compared to the current regulations, the new level increases by 5 million VND/month for each case.

In addition to the proposal to increase the income threshold, the Ministry of Construction also proposed to reduce the interest rate for social housing loans at the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to 5.4%/year, instead of the current 6.6%/year. This is an important adjustment to help people reduce the financial burden when buying a house.

In particular, the Ministry of Construction proposed a plan to assign commune-level police to confirm income for freelance workers. Accordingly, commune-level police will base on the National Population Database to confirm. This solution is considered more feasible than assigning it to the People's Committee of the commune/ward, because there is not enough information for confirmation.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Hai, Director of An Hung Phat Infrastructure Development Joint Stock Company, the unit implementing the social housing project of more than 1,500 apartments in Phuoc Tan ward, Dong Nai province, said: The proposals to increase income and reduce interest rates are completely reasonable to create more housing opportunities for workers and help businesses feel more secure in implementing the project.

At the National Conference to review the implementation of the social housing development target in the first 7 months of 2025 and tasks for the last months of the year, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed: Social housing development is a key task, a top priority in socio-economic development. The Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Construction to promptly submit a draft decree on the National Housing Fund, raising the income threshold to ensure compliance with reality.

It can be said that raising the income threshold is an economic solution to expand the target group of people accessing social security policies, contributing to unblocking the real estate market. Because when people can easily buy social housing, businesses will also feel secure investing in projects, thereby narrowing the gap between housing supply and demand. This is an important factor for the whole country to achieve the target of 1 million social housing units by 2030 set by the Government.

As for Dong Nai, this adjustment will contribute to solving the housing problem for workers, laborers, urban residents, and people whose land has been recovered but are not eligible for resettlement. At the same time, this policy also partly relieves the pressure on social security for urban areas, which is a condition to ensure sustainable socio-economic development.

Hoang Loc

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202509/can-nang-nguong-thu-nhap-cho-nguoi-mua-nha-o-xa-hoi-c6b13a5/